Population health

Top 10 healthiest and least healthy cities in the US

The country’s healthiest cities are predominantly in one part of the country, and the least healthy cities are in another, according to WalletHub.

https://wallethub.com/edu/healthiest-cities/31072/

What makes a city healthy? A healthy city provides solid access to health care, healthy food and fitness centers and also has ample green spaces for resident use, according to WalletHub, which recently released its ranking of over 170 U.S. cities for healthiness.

To compile the rankings, WalletHub ranked each city in 43 areas, each related to health care, food, fitness or green space. The more heavily weighted categories include the premature death rate, fruit and vegetable consumption and the share of adults who engage in any physical activity.

Large West Coast cities dominated the top 10 list, while all of the 10 cities at the bottom of the list were in the South, with the exception of Detroit. Below are WalletHub’s 10 healthiest and 10 least healthy cities for 2020.

Top 10 healthiest cities, according to WalletHub

1. San Francisco

2. Seattle

3. San Diego

4. Portland, Oregon

5. Washington, DC

6. New York

7. Denver

8. Irvine, California

9. Scottsdale, Arizona

10. Chicago

The 10 least healthy cities, according to WalletHub

174. Brownsville, Texas

173. Laredo, Texas

172. Gulfport, Mississippi

171. Shreveport, Louisiana

170. Memphis, Tennessee

169. Montgomery, Alabama

168. Huntington, West Virginia

167. Augusta, Georgia

166. Fort Smith, Arkansas

165. Detroit, Michigan

However, when you isolate the health care rankings, some different cities rise to the top and fall to the bottom of the rankings.

Top 10 cities for health care, according to WalletHub

1. Overland Park, Kansas

2. Irvine, California

3. Burlington, Vermont

4. Santa Clarita, California

5. Minneapolis, Minnesota

6. Sioux Falls, South Dakota

7. Virginia Beach, Virginia

8. Huntington Beach, California

9. Fremont, California

10. Plano, Texas

Bottom 10 cities for health care, according to WalletHub

174. Brownsville, Texas

173. North Las Vegas, Nevada

172. New Orleans

171. Gulfport, Mississippi

170. Detroit

169. Indianapolis

168. Baton Rouge, Louisiana

167. San Bernardino, California

166. Memphis, Tennessee

165. Shreveport, Louisiana

For more details, including more information on the ranking’s methodology, see the full report on WalletHub.

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2 comments

  1. Matt White

    They are not measuring where the people are actually healthy, but where people have the best opportunity to be healthy. The title of the article should be changed to reflect that.

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